House panel vote to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt over refusal to release full Mueller report

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler announced Monday that his panel will vote Wednesday on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

House Democrats are done playing nice — seriously this time.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has set a Wednesday vote on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress over his repeated refusals to hand over special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report.

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Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the judiciary committee, announced the vote Monday morning after Barr blew a second subpoena deadline to release Mueller’s unredacted findings about President Trump and Russia.

“The attorney general’s failure to comply with our subpoena, after extensive accommodation efforts, leaves us no choice but to initiate contempt proceedings in order to enforce the subpoena and access the full, unredacted report,” Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

The dramatic move comes as Barr is facing accusations that he misled lawmakers and soft-pedaled Mueller’s findings to protect Trump.

Boyd countered that Nadler and other Democrats have refused to review a slightly less-redacted version of Mueller’s report and said they should take up that offer before moving ahead with contempt proceedings.

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He invited committee staff from both parties to a closed-door meeting at Justice Department headquarters Wednesday afternoon to discuss the matter.

"In order to make the meeting productive, we believe that it would make sense for you to at least review the less-redacted version of the report in advance, and we will take steps to ensure that it remains available to you prior to the meeting," Boyd wrote.

Late Monday, Nadler replied the Justice Department had agreed to meet with him Tuesday instead. The New York Democrat made clear the contempt vote was still on the table.

“At the moment, our plans to consider holding Attorney General Barr accountable for his failure to comply with our subpoena still stand,” Nadler said. “My hope is that we make concrete progress at tomorrow’s meeting towards resolving this dispute.”

Democrats maintain they won’t be happy until they see Mueller’s full report while Barr and Republicans claim certain portions must be kept secret out of concern for national security and privacy.

While a successful contempt resolution would send a sharp message, it wouldn’t force the Justice Department to release Mueller’s full report and neither would it automatically result in criminal charges against Barr.

If the full House approves the resolution, a criminal referral would be issued to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which would likely be hard pressed to recommend charges against the attorney general.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, ripped Nadler’s contempt announcement as a politically motivated fishing expedition.

“Democrats have launched a proxy war smearing the attorney general when their anger actually lies with the president and the special counsel, who found neither conspiracy nor obstruction,” Collins said in a statement.

Barr enraged Nadler and other Democrats by skipping out on testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, claiming his grilling in the Senate Judiciary Committee a day prior was enough.

In the Senate testimony, Barr pushed back against accusations that he lied to lawmakers by not revealing Mueller had privately complained that the attorney general’s initial summary of the Russia probe was overly lenient on Trump.

Distrustful of Barr, Nadler said last week he’s hoping to bring in Mueller for testimony on May 15.

Trump, meanwhile, continued on a familiar path following Nadler’s contempt vote announcement.

“There are ‘No High Crimes & Misdemeanors,’ No Collusion, No Conspiracy, No Obstruction,” the president tweeted. “ALL THE CRIMES ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE, and that’s what the Dems should be looking at, but they won’t. Nevertheless, the tables are turning!”